Hi Readers! This is from the blog, “Free-Range Kids in Film,” by Michael Alves. How I remember this commercial! — L. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlNAYCcxgUw “Anthony” Prince Pasta commercial. Not sure when this was filmed, but it seems like it is the late 60s or early 70s. It shows a school-age boy, Anthony, running home through the streets of the North End of Boston to get his dinner. He is alone. The streets are crowded, but he gets home safely. According to the article below, this spot ran for 13 years. I bet no one felt it was strange that a boy would…
Author: lskenazy
Hi Readers! Just got this note from “Emily in Ohio.” Loved it! And her! — L. Dear Free-Range Kids: Last week, at 4pm, I received an automated call from the police station about an 11-year-old that was missing. When did the boy go missing you ask? That day at 2 pm. That’s right, he was missing for TWO WHOLE HOURS before the police called every single person in the city, asking for any information whatsoever regarding his whereabouts. A whopping five minutes later, I received another call — he had been located. Yeah, that’s right. Why is it the American…
Hi Folks! Just saw this wonderful child development reprint, courtesy of writer Christine Whitley on a blog called ChicagoNow. She reprinted it from a series of books published in 1979, just one generation or so ago, called, “Your ___-Year-Old.” Each book provided a little checklist of the milestones the average blank-year-old would have reached. So, for a six-year-old, in addition to having a couple of permanent teeth and knowing left from right, the book asks: Can he travel alone in the neighborhood (four to eight blocks) to store, school, playground, or to a friend’s home? What a reality check! Can…
Hi Readers — Nothing, as you know, is safe enough for children. Not notebook paper (as we saw a few posts below). Not toddling (as evidenced by the existence of the ThudGuard). And not old-fashioned spoons (which explains the kiddie spoons that change color when food is “too hot.”) And now, it turns out, not even a home-packed sack lunch is safe enough. Or at least, that’s how this story was reported: 9 Out of 10 Preschoolers’ Lunches Reach Unsafe temperatures According to this MSNBC account, “Unsafe, as the researchers defined it, was anything that sat for more…
Hi Readers — How I love this post by Scot Doyon, “Smart Growth = Smart Parenting,” on a blog called PlaceShakers, which bills itself as “people, news and views shaping community.” As you know, I think community is pretty much the answer to all our ills. The more we trust and depend on each other, the more confident we feel Free-Ranging our kids, the more fun we have in our lives, the more our streets teem with life and the less lonely we become. Add to this the dawning realization on the part of city planners that when a neighborhood…
Readers — I just got some “helpful” back-to-school tips from a famous sunscreen company. (Hint: Think dog and little girl and bathing suit.) Not only does that company really want kids to wear — this’ll surprise you — sunscreen when they go out for recess, but it had some other suggestions. Well, two, actually, one of which was for kids to wear a comfortable (as opposed to uncomfortable) backpack. Never woulda thought of that! The one single other “tip”? Students spend so much time staring at paper, it may surprise you to know that the higher the contrast, the more…
Hi Folks! I am inspired by what a reader named Allison sent me on Facebook. You may be, too. — L Dear Free-Range Kids: I’m reading Jaycee Dugard’s book “A Stolen Life.” and in it, she says: It still scares me, the fact that I can’t protect my daughters from everything. What mother wouldn’t want to protect their child from the dangers of the world? But I have to choose to believe they will both be okay and realize that sometimes when we shelter our children too much, we are really protecting ourselves. I don’t think anyone would ever question…
Hi Readers — Forgive the belabored headline. Here’s a story one of you alerted us all to in the post below this one: A Swedish woman left her baby outside a Massachusetts restaurant for 10 minutes while she ordered inside. Someone saw the boy, called the cops and the cops called Department of Child and Family Services to file a report of “potential abuse or neglect.” Now, I know that leaving your kids outside is common in Scandanavia and uncommon in the States. But as Pentamom put it in a comment: If I were empress of the universe, when…
Hi Folks! Here’s a big chunk of a wonderful essay by my friend and fellow journalist Christopher Moore, published in the New York weekly, Our Town. I guess when life hands you lemonade…write a column: Lemonade Stand-ing Watch by Christopher Moore At least in my Manhattan ‘hood, there are a crazy number of kids out on the sidewalks hawking cold—or at least cold-ish—beverages. The only problem: their parents are out there with them. The overprotective parent strikes again. And these adults can dramatically change the you’re-on-your-own tradition for kids with summertime stands. Yes, this is a case of a person…
Hi Readers — This “Dumbest Things” piece by the folks at Cracked is so perfect, click and enjoy. And remember, back when Cracked used to be the runner-up to Mad, I wrote scads of articles for it. (Just not recently, when it became brilliant social commentary.) Favorite Dumbest Thing schools are doing to “protect” kids? Well, it’s a toss up between the school banning ALL photography (lest it lead to and/or become child porn), and the individual radio frequency i.d. tags that a school purchased to track kids…except that if a kid IS somehow abducted from the school grounds, the…